Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan withdraws from consideration for position.

Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan. Reuters. 

Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan has withdrawn from consideration for the Secretary of Defense position after reports of family violence. Reuters. Shanahan said he made the descion to protect his three children from reliving a traumatic part of their life. Secretary of the Army Mark Esper will replace Shanahan in his position and will likely be nominated for the Secretary of Defense position. The incident happened with his ex-wife and both parties said that the other had hit the other. His ex-wife was arrested for the incident but charges were dropped. In another incident his son allegedly hit his mother with a baseball bat, knocking her unconscious. Shanahan said his son was acting in self defense. 

....I thank Pat for his outstanding service and will be naming Secretary of the Army, Mark Esper, to be the new Acting Secretary of Defense. I know Mark, and have no doubt he will do a fantastic job!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2019

My Comment:
I don't have strong opinions on if Patrick Shanahan was good in his position at the Pentagon. He didn't really have the impact that Jim Mattis had and his exit won't be as acrimonious as that one was.  He has quietly existed in his role but with scandals bubbling up under the surface. He was already cleared of an accusation of favoritism but this new incident torpedoed his chances.

However, I think there is a decent chance that Shanahan got screwed here. It's also possible he's a domestic abuser. Without a trial to determine the outcome of his case it's hard to tell who is at fault but it's even possible, and indeed likely, that the incident was a case of mutual combat.

I will say that the fact that the ex-wife was arrested and Shanahan was not tends to support his claim that she hit him, not the other way around. Police often either arrest both partners or arrest the man, regardless of the circumstances. My guess is that she really was the aggressor, but without a ruling either way it's hard to tell.

If she was the aggressor then this case is an absolute travesty. If Patrick Shanahan was the victim of domestic abuse then he should in no way have to resign. I can totally understand wanting to, who would want to put themselves through a Kavanaugh style hearing where every Democratic politician and media talking head accused you of being a wife beater when she was the one that beat him? Still, it's fairly disgusting to me that could be the case here.

Even more absurd is the idea that his son's actions should be part of the conversation. Whatever happened between his ex-wife and his son it happened after the split and they weren't living together. Shanahan is in no way responsible for his son's, or his ex-wife's, actions. And if it was self defense then it's even worse as his son may have done nothing wrong as well.

It seems that's the way it goes these days. With the media so out to get President Trump and any of his nominees, there can't even be a hint of scandal with any of them. Brett Kavanaugh shows how low the Democrats and the media are willing to go and it's much easier to confirm someone when the only question is one of policy. Hopefully Mark Esper will not have any trouble getting confirmed.

The timing of this is especially bad. Tensions are high with Iran and we need competent leadership to either avoid a full scale war or launch limited strikes. Not to mention the threat from ISIS and all the various other hot spots in the world. Not having a confirmed leader at the Pentagon is a huge distraction from the challenges the country faces and I hope that we get Esper confirmed as soon as possible.